Monthly Book Picks: The Month of August 2018

Hey, if you've ventured past my usual movies post and found this book blog post, welcome. It's a new series that I've started: Monthly Book Picks where I select my favourite reads of the past month on the first Monday.

This is one of the rare times that I actually remember to do a post when I'm supposed. Here are my picks for August.

You Don't Have to Say You Love Me by Sarra Manning (2011)
Formerly obese Neve who is still working towards a size 10 begins a practice relationship with her sister's colleague Max, so that she can be ready for a real relationship with her crush William, who is coming home after years of working abroad.
While I have read a few Sarra Manning's YA titles, this is the only adult title of hers that I've read and I am pleasantly surprised as I didn't like her YA titles that much, but I love this. I enjoyed her writing much more here and the story is just sweet, charming and funny. I definitely recommend it to readers who enjoy UK chick lit especially those by Sophie Kinsella and Mhairi McFarlane.

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James (2018)
1950, Vermont. A girl from a boarding school for troubled girls goes missing. 2014, Vermont. Fiona, a journalist, is still haunted by the murder of the her sister 20 years ago whose body was found near the ruins of a girls' boarding school. When a shocking discovery is made during the restoration and renovation of the same school, a link is soon found between what is found now to the events of 1950 and 20 years ago. 
This book is like so hot this year, I keep seeing it on a lot of 2018 books-to-read lists and I can totally see why now because I really like it. It's part mystery thriller and part ghost story which made it such a good spooky atmospheric read. I especially love the ghost story part of this and how the ghost haunts is just so creepy and scary. I'd recommend it to anyone that like mystery thrillers with a side of paranormal.

Monthly Book Picks: The Month of June and July 2018

Hey, if you've ventured past my usual movies post and found this book blog post, welcome. It's a new series that I've started: Monthly Book Picks where I select my favourite reads of the past month on the first Monday.

I'm so terrible at this; because it is a once-a-month thing, last month I forgot to do a post. So this month, it will again be for two months: June and July.

June 2018

“I am shocking. What was done to me was shocking. I am outside the boundaries forever, no longer decent.”

All the Truth That's in Me by Julie Berry (2013)
The Gist: Four years ago, Judith disappeared from her town. Two years ago, she finally returns with her tongue cut out. While Judith herself is unable to speak about what happened to her, she is assumed to be a fallen woman thus now an outcast ignored by family and friends. Only when something threatens her town does the past slowly reveals itself. Let's start off with the cover; I hate it. The cover makes it seem like it is some grungy high school contemporary story. It is not. This is actually historical fiction set in unnamed period which is likely during the time of the Puritans. The rest of it I actually love (ok maybe not so much the ending, just because it feels as if everything wraps up a little too quickly in the last 10% and a little too nicely, but maybe that's just me being a little too nitpicky). I especially love the second person narration; Judith telling us her story through silently speaking to her childhood crush (now a man, out of reach for her now due to her outcast status and him being engaged to another) in her thoughts. It's filled with such longing and wanting to be seen and not assumed the worst that is so excruciatingly heartbreaking which just further fittingly illustrates her isolation and loneliness.

“Learn to spot irrelevant people. Don't expect someone who doesn't know who they are to care who you are.”   

Who’s That Girl? by Mhairi McFarlane (2015)
The Gist: When Edie is found kissing the groom at a colleague's wedding, all the blame falls on her, and she is quickly shamed online and at work. In order to give the incident some time to cool off, Edie's boss sends her away to ghostwrite an autobiography of a hot new actor currently filming in her hometown. I used be such a book snob (I still am :), but in other ways) and turn up my nose on chick lit, but now I greatly enjoy them and I love love this one. The best chick lits, isn't all about the romance. It's usually about overcoming something usually with the help of family and friends, finding romance along the way and all with a lot of humor mixed in it...and Who's That Girl? is I think one of the best I've read thus far.


July 2018

“It's a special art, asking people to do things, yet making it seem as if you never asked at all.”   

Sunburn by Laura Lippman (2018)
The Gist: Two strangers, Polly and Adam, meet at a local tavern. Both are supposedly just passing through in the summer, yet they end up staying, starting an affair. But neither of them is being truthful about who they really are and when someone dies, the truth slowly begins to surface. I really enjoyed this. The book had like little hints of Gone Girl in the beginning with Polly being such a strong character who just dominates the story. With her true self/back story revealed ever so slowly, Polly always just seemed she could be so much more dangerous than she let on, which made Sunburn such a page turner for me.

Monthly Book Picks: The Month of May 2018

Hey, if you've ventured past my usual movies post and found this book blog post, welcome. It's a new series that I've started: Monthly Book Picks where I select my favourite reads of the past month.

“People are dumb. I’ll never get over how dumb people are.”

The Grownup by Gillian Flynn (2015)
The Gist: A young woman makes a living as a con artist, the most recent, pretending to be a psychic. She is approached by rich, beautiful Susan, desperate for help: there seems to be an evil presence in her home which might have possessed her stepson. The narrator soon does psychic home visits to Susan's home to cleanse it and she is about to make a surprising discovery. Too bad it is just a novella; I really like it and wanted more. The story definitely looks like it could have been expanded into a novel. I have to say, in the beginning, the edginess of the character and her questionable profession kinda reminds me of the beginnings of a Palahniuk novel. Then it took a different direction when we get to Susan and her haunted house which really was pretty terrifying. But things are never as it seems in a Flynn novel so there were tons of fun twist and turns at the end and you just can't decide what's real or not.

“It was a woman--as pale and luminescent as a ghost, with swirling white hair. Ezra startled, dropping his pencil into the water. Her face snapped toward him. Her eyes were too large, clear green, and had horizontal, slit-shaped pupils, reminiscent of an octopus.”   

Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama (2012)
The Gist: 140 years ago, a mermaid gave up her life underwater to be with a young naturalist but their love story ended in tragedy. In the present day, a 17 year old girl meets a mysterious stranger with whom she feels a strange connection with and he helps her investigate the mysterious affliction that have plagued the women in her family causing them all to die soon after giving birth. This is my first mermaid book and I really enjoyed this; it's a blend of contemporary, historical, horror and fantasy fiction with a little bit of romance. Ultimately it's a dark and tragic tale the way fairy tales were before they were heavily edited for young readers. I'd definitely recommend this to those that like to read folk tales and the un-Disneyfied fairy tales.

Monthly Book Picks: The Month of April 2018

Hey, if you've ventured past my usual movies post and found this book blog post, welcome. It's a new series that I've started: Monthly Book Picks where I select my favourite reads of the past month. Interesting coincidence: both my April picks' protagonist is named Allison.

“Hunger flickered, always there, but I pushed it down. I was a vampire. Nothing would change that. But I didn't have to be a monster."

The Immortal Rules (Blood of Eden #1) by Julie Kagawa (2012)
The Gist: In a post apocalyptic dystopian future that takes place years after a terrible virus, the vampires are now living out in the open and ruling the cities (hence the title). A human girl living in the fringe of the city and society gets turned into a vampire. Forced to flee the only home she's ever known and passing herself as human she tags along with a group of humans on a journey to Eden, a place that may have a possible cure for the virus. It's been a few years since I've read anything vampire related and I miss the genre. So I finally picked up this one that has been on my to-be-read list for years. I really enjoyed it. It's a little slow at first but the action scenes in the later parts makes up for all that. Also, great protagonist. Kicks ass and has agency. I would say it is sort of a mix of Daybreakers and Underworld with a dash of Children of Men and The Walking Dead.

“It didn't even feel like lying anymore. It felt like forgiveness, leaving the past in the past. It felt like mercy. It felt like moving on...And what was one more secret in this house packed to the attic with secrets? ”  

The Lucky Ones by Tiffany Reisz
The Gist: Allison had been one of several children fostered or adopted by a philanthropist / brain surgeon. She led a happy life in the doctor's home with the other kids until she almost died. Due to the suspicion that someone in the family may have tried to kill her, she is whisked away into the care of an elderly aunt. Thirteen years later, Allison receives a letter that the good doctor is dying and she decides to visit her foster family and perhaps finally find out what happened to her those years ago. Really like the book and I did not expect the places it went (in a good way) because the synopsis on the book (which is little longer than my gist) gave little indication. I found it quite scary too, and it's not with the whole she-once-almost-died mystery, but the deeper story of her foster family and the why and how they came to be.

Monthly Book Picks: The Month of March 2018

Hey, if you've ventured past my usual movies post and found this book blog post, welcome. It's a new series that I've started: Monthly Book Picks where I select my favourite reads of the past month. Last month turned out to be a solitary endeavour but if you want to join in this month do leave a link using the inlinkz gadget below. Monthly Book Picks will go up every first Monday of the month.

 

“Sometimes I think illness sits inside every woman, waiting for the right moment to bloom."

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (2006)
The Gist: Back on the job after a brief stay at psych hospital, a journalist is assigned to return to her hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. There's something about the women in a Gillian Flynn novel. They're never simply one thing. They are often messy and most likely very messed up. In Sharp Objects even the children are too. They are so creepy; some are drinking and taking drugs at such a young age and others are wild in an almost feral like way. As a mystery, I think it is better than Gone Girl; Sharp Objects certainly has a lot more stuff to unpack and to sieve through to the truth.

“No one tells you it’s all about to change, to be taken away. There’s no proximity alert, no indication that you’re standing on the precipice. And maybe that’s what makes tragedy so tragic. Not just what happens, but how it happens: a sucker punch that comes at you out of nowhere, when you’re least expecting it. No time to flinch or brace.”  

Dark Matter by Blake Crouch (2016)
The Gist: After being abducted and knocked unconscious, Jason wakes up surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. He soon learns that in the world he has woken up to, he did not marry the woman who was his wife and his son was never born. I remember seeing Dark Matter on a lot of top book lists in 2016 and finally read it last March. Wow, what a mind fuck of a book. This was such a fun thrilling fast paced read that was also nightmarish and horrifying with the infinite possibilities it presents.

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Monthly Book Picks: The Month of January and February 2018

Hey, if you have read my blog the last month or so you may have heard me talking about starting a Monthly Book Picks where you select your favourite reads of the last month; so here it is. Since I missed January, I'll be doing both January and February picks this month. If you want to join in do leave a link using the inlinkz gadget below. Monthly Book Picks will go up every first Monday of the month.

January 2018

“There are no good men in this game.”

Vicious (The Villains #1) by V.E. Schwab (2013)
The Gist: College roommates become vicious enemies after developing superpowers through their science experiments. Ten years later, one of them has come back to execute his revenge.
Imagine The Prestige movie but instead of magicians it's people with wicked superpowers. I had high expectations going into this because it has a high rating on Goodreads which was definitely met and Vicious has become my one of favourites. It has great writing, plot, pacing and fascinating characters. If you're tired of the usual superhero fare, as the quote above implies, there are no heroes here.  I can't wait for the sequel and the film adaptation which I'm surprised has not come sooner.


February 2018

“There was a small part of me that was still childish, stubborn in her hope, thinking I could somehow have everything. ...That I could be all the versions of me, stacked inside one another, and find someone who would want them all. But that's childhood. Before you realize that every step is a choice. That something must be given up for something to be gained. Everything on a scale, a weighing of desires, an ordering of which you want more--and what you'd be willing to give for it.” 

All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda (2016) 
The Gist: Nicollete has returned to her hometown for the summer to help her brother fix their old house so that they can sell it to use the sale money for the father's nursing home expanses. Then her father, who has dementia, starts saying that he has seen the disappeared girl on their porch, only he has not been to their house a year since his nursing home stay and which girl was he referring too? Nicollete's best friend who disappeared ten years ago or the latest girl that has gone missing, their neighbour. Told in reverse, the link between the girls is slowly revealed as the past resurface.
This is actually my second reading, I loved it on the first read but it being a mystery told in reverse and with a first person narration,you know how unreliable they all are, I knew I was missing a lot of the breadcrumbs the first time around. And yes this is definitely one of those stories/books that you'll continually discover new things you missed before. I also love the writing and the narrator's voice that has a certain reflective wariness to it. Overall just a satisfying suspenseful mystery, one of the best I'd say that I read the last year or so.

“Power. What men like best for themselves and least in their women.”

The Queen of Attolia (The Queen's Thief #2) by Megan Whalen Turner (2000) 
This is the second book in the YA fantasy series The Queen's Thief. The first book The Thief is about a thief who claims he is able to steal anything so he is recruited and goes on a journey with the king's scholar, a soldier and two apprentices to recover a treasure. The first two thirds of the first book, for me, was boring. But the last third was excellent. In the second book, The Queen of Attolia, the thief this time is enlisted more for stealing information and that really is all I can say lest I spoil the first book. Also that, unlike the first book, it is great from the start. It has action, drama, political intrigue with plenty of twist and turns and even has a little romance. I love The Queen of Attolia more, but you definitely can't jump to reading this without reading the first book and all the essential world building.

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